Shortages Emerging as Shoppers Clear Store Shelves of Masks, Hand Sanitizer, Toilet Paper

(MyNorthwest) Shoppers are stocking up on supplies to prepare for the potential spread of coronavirus.

At a Costco in South Seattle on Saturday, customers bought up hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to panic but I do think that if people aren’t cautious and don’t follow the news, there could be a situation in which people infect other people without knowing it and that could be dangerous,” one shopper said.

Surgical masks were sold out at Costco, as well as Kirkland brand toilet paper.

A similar situation was reported at the Costco near Lake Oswego in Oregon. Worried shoppers thronged the store, emptying shelves of items including toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water, frozen berries, and black beans.

“Toilet paper is golden in an apocalypse,” one Costco employee said.

Employees said the store ran out of toilet paper for the first time in its history and that it was the busiest they had ever seen, including during Christmas Eve.

[Read more…]

9am at Costco in San Jose.
Workers were baffled by the lines and said it's only like this at Christmas.
Water is now gone, as is Theraflu and other basic necessities.

All I wanted to get was dog food. ?‍♀️ #coronavirus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/7SdTRKTqbB

— theRzaSays…VOTE! (@theRza2u) February 29, 2020

Mass fear of the corona virus cause people to panic and stock up on water, toilet paper and Clorox wipes at all the Costco stores. Crazy pic.twitter.com/AyDMgIzDiy

— kwolfgramm (@Pasifikisland3r) March 1, 2020

(New York Times) CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J. — Many shoppers at the local Walmart had the same question on Friday morning: “Where do I find your hand sanitizer?”

The answer: Nowhere.

Employees at the Cedar Knolls store showed shopper after shopper shelves devoid of any hand sanitizer. When an employee found a lone small box of travel packs of Clorox disinfecting wipes high on a shelf, hands reached in, grabbing the packs, three or more at a time.

Asked when more hand sanitizers would be available, the employee shrugged.

A few miles away, at a CVS Health, an employee laughed softly when asked where the hand sanitizers were, pointing to a shelf where only five bottles of CVS’s private-label brand sat. Then a man grabbed one and made his way to the checkout line, reducing the stock to four.

[Read more…]